DEMAND ANSWERS FROM DPD

Last Wednesday, senior Eric Halperin's name was officially
cleared.

That day The Chronicle reported that all drug-related charges against
the senior had been dropped. The announcement came nearly one month
after Durham Police Department officials stormed into the Duke
student's off-campus house and arrested him on charges of trafficking
marijuana and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.

The reason for the Feb. 27 police invasion: Halperin - like current
senior Ryan Packer a year before - had signed for a DHL package that
contained very large amounts of marijuana.

The fact that Halperin's was the second name that needed to be cleared
in as many years no doubt seems to point to something suspicious, and
something that should be investigated more thoroughly in the upcoming
weeks.

But there are even some matters that are more certain in this case.
First among these is what definitely appears to be an ongoing trend of
DPD's more-than-questionable tactics against Duke students-tactics for
which both Duke and Durham have an obligation to more fully hold the
police department accountable.

Given its draconian approach to the would-be February bust-in addition
to its sordid history with Duke students in the past-it is
unacceptable that DPD gave no comment to The Chronicle when charges
against Halperin were dropped March 24.

Halperin's housemate described Durham police and State Bureau of
Investigation agents as having knocked down the door to 1026 W.
Trinity Ave. Feb. 27. They reportedly carried assault rifles, dragged
roommates across the floor and asked at least one of them to strip
naked before finding nothing in the house.

Officials then proceeded to arrest Halperin for signing for the
package of marijuana, but only after doing hundreds of dollars in
damage to the house, the roommate said.

Even if residents of the house had been found guilty of a drug-related
crime, this conduct would be questionable if not entirely out of line.

After the DPD's conduct fell under such harsh scrutiny following the
lacrosse case, it would only make sense that the police department
should respond in some form to the Halperin case. But it did not.

Meanwhile, when the Duke University Police Department was contacted
last week, its officials did not know that the Halperin charges had
been dropped and said they had not been in contact with the DPD about
the case of late. Indeed, The Chronicle found out charges had been
dropped only when Halperin himself came forward to the paper.

In this case, as in the past, both DPD and DUPD demonstrated that they
had not learned lessons from the past and still suffer from
shortcomings in communication. This should not-and cannot-be the case
moving forward.

The Duke administration, on the other hand, reportedly supported
Halperin and his housemates in a commendable way, and Halperin was not
immediately suspended. This time, it seems, administrators were able
to learn from their all-too-evident shortcomings in the lacrosse case.

The administration should take their support a step further at this
point and, in light of DPD's egregious missteps in the past and DUPD's
apparent lack of attention to the present case, ask some hard
questions of both police departments-but especially of Durham's
so-called finest.